EP0316200A2 - Medizinisches Ultraschallabbildungssystem - Google Patents

Medizinisches Ultraschallabbildungssystem Download PDF

Info

Publication number
EP0316200A2
EP0316200A2 EP88310686A EP88310686A EP0316200A2 EP 0316200 A2 EP0316200 A2 EP 0316200A2 EP 88310686 A EP88310686 A EP 88310686A EP 88310686 A EP88310686 A EP 88310686A EP 0316200 A2 EP0316200 A2 EP 0316200A2
Authority
EP
European Patent Office
Prior art keywords
velocity
rejection
samples
signal
clutter
Prior art date
Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
Granted
Application number
EP88310686A
Other languages
English (en)
French (fr)
Other versions
EP0316200B1 (de
EP0316200A3 (en
Inventor
Steven C. Leavitt
Current Assignee (The listed assignees may be inaccurate. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of the list.)
HP Inc
Original Assignee
Hewlett Packard Co
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Hewlett Packard Co filed Critical Hewlett Packard Co
Publication of EP0316200A2 publication Critical patent/EP0316200A2/de
Publication of EP0316200A3 publication Critical patent/EP0316200A3/en
Application granted granted Critical
Publication of EP0316200B1 publication Critical patent/EP0316200B1/de
Anticipated expiration legal-status Critical
Expired - Lifetime legal-status Critical Current

Links

Images

Classifications

    • GPHYSICS
    • G01MEASURING; TESTING
    • G01SRADIO DIRECTION-FINDING; RADIO NAVIGATION; DETERMINING DISTANCE OR VELOCITY BY USE OF RADIO WAVES; LOCATING OR PRESENCE-DETECTING BY USE OF THE REFLECTION OR RERADIATION OF RADIO WAVES; ANALOGOUS ARRANGEMENTS USING OTHER WAVES
    • G01S15/00Systems using the reflection or reradiation of acoustic waves, e.g. sonar systems
    • G01S15/88Sonar systems specially adapted for specific applications
    • G01S15/89Sonar systems specially adapted for specific applications for mapping or imaging
    • G01S15/8906Short-range imaging systems; Acoustic microscope systems using pulse-echo techniques
    • G01S15/8979Combined Doppler and pulse-echo imaging systems
    • G01S15/8981Discriminating between fixed and moving objects or between objects moving at different speeds, e.g. wall clutter filter

Definitions

  • This invention relates to the field of ultrasound imaging and, in particular, to ultrasound imaging for medical diagnostic purposes. More specifically, the invention relates to improved signal filtering for use in cardiovascular ultrasound flow mapping, permitting improved discrimination between blood flow and heart wall motion.
  • the first aspect is the angle between the flow velocity of interest and the incident ultrasound beam.
  • the most accurate velocities are measured when the angle is very small.
  • certain cardiac anomalies such as high-velocity jets caused by stenotic, regurgitant, or shunt lesions, or defects in the heart
  • the exact angle of flow is unknown, and movement or rotation of the transducer is necessary until the location of the highest maximum velocity is obtained.
  • the other important aspect of the equation is the proportional relationship between the frequency used to interrogate the blood flow and the resultant frequency shift. Due to this relationship, both pulsed Doppler and continuous-wave (CW) Doppler measurements are often employed.
  • CW continuous-wave
  • a typical prior art medical ultrasound imaging system employs a phased array transducer, a scanner unit and a signal processing and display unit.
  • the scanner unit provides analog signal conditioning, beam forming and signal translation from the ultrasound range to a more convenient intermediate frequency (I.F.) range.
  • I.F. intermediate frequency
  • the processing and display unit then converts the analog I.F. signals to digital form and processes the digital samples in order to facilitate extraction and display of desired information contained in the transducer output.
  • the display and processing unit may provide both black and white (monochrome) as well as color imaging.
  • the monochrome mode typically is used to show anatomic detail, with blood flow shown in the color mode.
  • a two-dimensional monochrome image may show a sector- (i.e., arcuately-) shaped scan region (i.e., volume) of a patient, displayed at a rate of approximately 30 frames per second.
  • a color mode image may be overlaid on a portion (up to 100%) of the scanned sector, displacing the monochrome image.
  • the monochrome signal or the color signal is displayed; alternatively, the two signals may be combined in some fashion.
  • the color image is typically a color-coded blood flow map, where the color coding indicates localized velocity and turbulence of blood flow.
  • velocity is shown in shades of red and blue, red indicating flow toward the transducer and blue indicating flow away from the transducer, or vice versa; sometimes another color may be mixed in over a portion of the scale, to focus attention on flows within selected ranges.
  • the intensity and/or shading of the color represents the speed of the flow toward or away from the transducer. Shades of green are sometimes added to indicate turbulence.
  • Velocity is measured using Doppler frequency shift techniques, which are well known. Turbulence is calculated, based on sample-to-sample consistency of velocities.
  • the received (i.e., echoed) signal at the transducer output contains not only a Doppler shift component due to reflection from the moving blood, but also Doppler components due to reflections from the motion of tissue structures such as blood vessels, heart walls and valves.
  • the heart wall is constantly in motion and is denser than the blood, it contributes a substantial Doppler signal which is significantly larger in amplitude (but generally lower in frequency) than the signal generated by the blood flow itself.
  • a primary function of the signal processing and display unit is, therefore, to separate to the extent possible the signal due to the blood flow from other extraneous signals, such as those due to heart wall motion. (These extraneous signals may be termed "clutter.")
  • the clutter rejection filter provides a frequency-dependent attenuation (or gain) of the received (i.e., returned echo) Doppler signal; the gain is higher for the blood flow signals (which are higher in frequency since blood flow is higher in velocity) than for the clutter signals.
  • the received signal After the received signal has been thus filtered, it is sampled and velocity calculations are made from samples. Each computed velocity value is then "screened" against certain rejection (i.e., validation) criteria by the velocity sample rejection system.
  • Velocities which have been determined from samples whose amplitudes (or at least one of whose amplitudes) are (is) below a predetermined acceptance/rejection threshold are considered unreliable and are therefore "discarded" by the velocity sample rejection system (i.e., they are neither displayed nor used in further calculations).
  • the present invention provides an improved system for extracting blood flow information from "clutter" in a medical ultrasound system, to provide a better signal-to-noise ratio.
  • the signal processing used in the velocity sample rejection system for separation the blood flow echo from the other Doppler components in the reflected signal, has used a simple, frequency-­independent thresholding function. That is, any received signal sample having an amplitude below a selected threshold was discarded; the threshold was the same for all frequencies.
  • the present inventio:n may utilize the same clutter rejection filter and velocity determination system as in the prior art (or any equivalent clutter rejection filter and velocity determination means).
  • the present invention utilizes, in combination with these elements, a velocity sample rejection system which implements a velocity-dependent (i.e., frequency-dependent) rejection threshold. That is, the acceptance/rejection threshold is a function of frequency.
  • the shape of the velocity-dependent thresholding function closely matches that of the attenuation transfer function of the clutter rejection filter.
  • the rejection threshold is substantially lower than it is for high velocity samples.
  • the rejection level increases monotonically as the signal deviates from the I.F.
  • This type of frequency-dependent clutter and reject filtering has been found to improve the signal-to-noise ratio (i.e., clutter rejection) by about 12 dB, for the particular clutter rejection filter used in the HP,77020 system identified above.
  • Fig. 1 there is shown a block diagram of a Doppler ultrasound system 10 of the type in which the present invention may be used.
  • a Doppler ultrasound system 10 of the type in which the present invention may be used.
  • One such prior art system which is commercially available is the model HP 77020 Phased Array Ultrasound System sold by Hewlett-Packard Company Medical Products Group, Andover, Massachusetts.
  • the system employs a phased array ultrasound transducer 12, a scanner unit 14 and a processing and display unit 16.
  • the scanner unit 14 generates the signals to control the transducer array 12 so as to generate a directed beam of ultrasonic energy, and receives (and optionally filters and amplifies) the echoes detected by the transducer array.
  • the output of the transducer array is an analog Doppler shift signal centered about a predetermined frequency, the I.F.
  • the output from the scanner unit 14 is supplied to processing and display unit (PDU) 16, a block diagram of which is shown in Figs. 2A and 2B.
  • the first stage of the PDU is a variable gain amplifier 18; the gain of this amplifier is manually set by the operator.
  • the output of the amplifier 18 is run though a bandpass I.F. filter 22.
  • the I.F. filter 22 passes the complete range of intermediate frequencies, which typically may be from one to three megahertz. Although the filter 22 is used to optimize the signal-to-noise ratio of the returning echo, the Doppler signal has yet to be extracted.
  • a sampling process is used to detect the Doppler shift and, hence, to determine the blood velocity at a given depth in the body of the patient.
  • the output of the bandpass filter 22 is fed through a notch filter, not shown, in order to attenuate any signal component from the local oscillator for the transducer; such component(s) could interfere with the signal processing).
  • the signal transmitted into the patient's body by the transducer contains energy only at the harmonics of the pulse repetition frequency (PRF).
  • PRF pulse repetition frequency
  • the returning echo contains components originating from two types of sources: stationary tissue and nonstationary tissue (including blood).
  • the echoes from stationary tissue like the emitted signal, contain energy only at the PRF harmonics.
  • the echoes from moving targets contain energy at frequencies shifted from the PRF harmonics by an amount proportional to the velocity of the target, as described by the Doppler equation. The system is designed to detect these frequency shifts.
  • the sum of the two echo types (in the filtered I.F. output) is sampled by an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) 24, which then supplies complex samples.
  • ADC analog-to-digital converter
  • the timing of the sampling operation is controlled by a sampling clock supplied on line 26.
  • PRI pulse repetition interval
  • PRF pulse repetition interval
  • the process of sampling can be restated as the translation and summing of each of the harmonics of the PRF and their immediate spectrums down to baseband.
  • the spectrum is mirrored about the frequency PRF/2 (referred to as the Nyquist rate).
  • PRF/2 referred to as the Nyquist rate
  • quadrature sampling is often used.
  • a pair of samplers is provided. A short time after a first one of the samplers take a sample, the second sampler takes another sample of the same signal. The delay between the two samplings is one-fourth the period of the I.F. The lead-lag phase relationship between the two sets of samples provides flow direction information. Additionally, the inclusion of the second sampler effectively doubles the Doppler bandwidth, allowing shifts from -Nyquist to +Nyquist frequencies to be distinguished.
  • a conventional quadrature baseband mixing system may be used, sampling its output to produce the complex samples.
  • a conventional clutter rejection filter 28 is used to reject unwanted Doppler signals.
  • These unwanted signals are chiefly "wall signals" -- that is, reflections from the stationary or slowly moving heart and vessel walls as well as from the tissue between the transducer and the flow volume being interrogated.
  • Such wall signals are typically 100 times as large as the echo received from the blood and are distinguished by having a much lower frequency Doppler shift than the echoes from the blood motion.
  • the clutter rejection filter exploits this frequency separation to attenuate the low-frequency wall signals so they will not obscure the desired blood flow data.
  • Fig. 3 shows in curve 40 a typical response for a clutter rejection filter.
  • a Doppler processing system 32 then decodes the filtered signal to convert the "de-cluttered" Doppler frequency information into velocity information at each spatial point in the sampled volume. These raw velocity calculations are not immediately displayed. Rather, velocity samples are first separated into “good” samples and “bad” samples by a velocity sample rejection system. The “bad” samples are discarded, and a circular averager 33 uses only the "good” samples to generate the average velocity at each point.
  • the averaging of velocity measures in stage 33 is a so-called “circular” averaging process which takes into account the fact that velocity is represented as a complex variable using modulo arithmetic.
  • the averaged velocity data is supplied to an image memory and scan conversion subsystem 34 which generates the signals to control a display monitor 36 in order to show an image representing the measured blood flow in the sampled volume.
  • the present invention is distinguished from the prior art in the particulars of the clutter rejection filtering and associated velocity sample rejection system, which uses a velocity-dependent threshold to distinguish between "goodness” and "badness” of velocity samples.
  • the response of the prior art velocity sample rejection system is represented by the flat threshold function shown at line 42 in Fig. 3, superimposed on the clutter filter response curve 40. Note that the ordinate shows gain for the clutter rejection filter but amplitude for the rejection threshold function.
  • the present invention employs a rejection threshold response as shown in Fig. 4 at curve 46.
  • This rejection threshold function 46 is a frequency-dependent stepwise approximation to the clutter filter response 44.
  • rejection threshold function 46 is shown as having four levels. That choice is for exemplification only, as the system designer may choose a different number of level without departing from the spirit of the invention.
  • the locations of the threshold- level-transition points may be decided empirically.
  • the velocity-dependent-rejection response of the present invention is accomplished by an apparatus which screens out (from further processing) velocity samples which do not meet the acceptability criteria -- i.e., are based on echoes whose amplitudes fall below the threshold function.
  • velocity sample is somewhat of a misnomer; velocities are calculated, not sampled. Nevertheless, in the vernacular, each calculated velocity value is often called a sample.
  • each velocity value Since the calculation of velocity is based on a differential phase measurement, each velocity value actually requires two signal samples.
  • the acceptance or rejection of a velocity sample thus depends on the acceptability of the pair of signal samples used to calculate that velocity value.
  • Each sample is a complex value -- i.e., it has both magnitude and phase. Consequently, the rejection criteria depends on four variables: two magnitudes and two phases. Stated another way, the rejection function depends on the amplitudes of the two echo samples and on the calculated velocity (since the phase difference divided by the sampling period gives the velocity).
  • Figs. 2A and 2B The system providing this operation is shown in Figs. 2A and 2B.
  • ROM 54 provides the phase (on line 55A) and magnitude (on line 55B) of each sample.
  • This phase and magnitude information is stored in a temporary memory called a line buffer, 56.
  • the system divides each scanned sector into a large number of consecutively adjacent scan lines. Each scan line is subdivided into a number of sample "points" (i.e., small volumes) at which localized Doppler measurements are taken.
  • Line buffer 56 stores the samples for each line from one scan line to the next.
  • a second ROM receives each current sample's phase and magnitude information on lines 55A and 55B from ROM 54 while receiving from line buffer 56 the comparable information for the previous sample at the same spatial location.
  • the VRFG ROM has two jobs: it decodes the phase information to provide on line 62 a signal (VELOCITY) providing a velocity sample and it generates the velocity rejection function (the REJECT or rejection signal, for short) on line 64.
  • the VELOCITY signal is calculated by dividing the inter-sample angular progression by the PRI.
  • the REJECT signal is a binary signal provided in a first state to indicate that the rejection threshold was exceeded for the current sample (i e., the sample is "good"), and in a second state to indicate that the reject threshold was not exceeded (i.e., the sample is "bad”.) .
  • the REJECT signal is said to be "asserted” or "present”.
  • the circular averaging stage 66 receives both outputs from VRFG ROM 60; however, it only processes those samples of the VELOCITY signal for which the REJECT signal is not asserted, That is, when the REJECT signal is asserted. the velocity value on line 62 is ignored or discarded; it is not averaged with prior velocity samples and it is not displayed.
  • Fig. 5 depicts a high-level flow chart for the operation of the angle and magnitude conversion ROM 54.
  • step 82 the real and imaginary data portions of a Doppler sample are received, each coded as seven bits.
  • the vector magnitude (MAGVEC) of the sample is then computed in step 84 as the square root of the sum of the squares of the real and imaginary data.
  • the magnitude is then encoded (in step 86) to a two-bit variable, MAGREJ.
  • the angle of the sample vector is evaluated (in step 88) to a five-bit variable, VALUE.
  • the number of bits used for each variable is to some degree a matter of design choice.
  • Fig. 6 provides a high-level flow chart for the operation of the VRFG ROM 60.
  • the inputs to this ROM are a pair of five-bit angle values termed NEWANGLE (for the new, or current, sample) and OLDANGLE (for the preceding scan's sample, from the line buffer), and a pair of corresponding two-bit magnitude values labelled, respectively, MAGVEC1 (for the current sample) and MAGVEC2 (for the preceding sample).
  • NEWANGLE for the new, or current, sample
  • OLDANGLE for the preceding scan's sample, from the line buffer
  • MAGVEC1 for the current sample
  • MAGVEC2 for the preceding sample.
  • DELTA is encoded into a corresponding five-bit velocity value, VELOCITY (step 96).
  • VELOCITY DELTA/PRI.
  • REJECT rejection signal
  • That function serves the purpose of asserting the REJECT signal if for a given value of VELOCITY, either MAGVEC1 or MAGVEC2 is below the threshold level established for that velocity range.
  • the rejection function is defined by the shaded area 49 under the dashed threshold line 46.
  • the ordinate in Fig. 4 represents the amplitude of the echoes, which become encoded as MAGVEC1 and MAGVEC2 values.
  • the REJECT signal is asserted if either MAGVEC1 or MAGVEC2 is less than T1.
  • the threshold increases to T2, and so forth.
  • the system can look first at the lesser of MAGVEC1 and MAGVEC2 and then check to ensure that the corresponding frequencies are in the range where those amplitudes are acceptable.
  • the VELOCITY and REJECT signals on lines 62 and 64 are also applied to a turbulence calcuator 102, which calculates a measure of the dispersion in values between successive samples at the same spatial location.
  • the turbulence calculator is controlled by the REJECT signal, to ignore velocity samples not passing the rejection criteria.
  • the turbulence calculation is supplied along with the circular averages to an optional spatial filter 104.
  • the spatial filter can be a median filter, averaging filter, or other type of filter for enhancing the image.

Landscapes

  • Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
  • Radar, Positioning & Navigation (AREA)
  • Remote Sensing (AREA)
  • Acoustics & Sound (AREA)
  • Computer Networks & Wireless Communication (AREA)
  • General Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • Ultra Sonic Daignosis Equipment (AREA)
  • Measuring Volume Flow (AREA)
EP88310686A 1987-11-12 1988-11-11 Medizinisches Ultraschallabbildungssystem Expired - Lifetime EP0316200B1 (de)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
US07/119,754 US4850364A (en) 1987-11-12 1987-11-12 Medical ultrasound imaging system with velocity-dependent rejection filtering
US119754 1987-11-12

Publications (3)

Publication Number Publication Date
EP0316200A2 true EP0316200A2 (de) 1989-05-17
EP0316200A3 EP0316200A3 (en) 1990-03-28
EP0316200B1 EP0316200B1 (de) 1993-08-25

Family

ID=22386174

Family Applications (1)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
EP88310686A Expired - Lifetime EP0316200B1 (de) 1987-11-12 1988-11-11 Medizinisches Ultraschallabbildungssystem

Country Status (4)

Country Link
US (1) US4850364A (de)
EP (1) EP0316200B1 (de)
JP (1) JP2738939B2 (de)
DE (1) DE3883484T2 (de)

Cited By (6)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
EP0492054A2 (de) * 1990-12-20 1992-07-01 Hewlett-Packard Company Adaptives Sperrfilter zur farblichen Darstellung von Strömungen in der Ultraschallbildtechnik
EP0524774A2 (de) * 1991-07-25 1993-01-27 Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. Bildgebener Ultraschall-Doppler-Apparat
WO1994016341A1 (en) * 1993-01-08 1994-07-21 General Electric Company Color flow imaging system utilizing a time domain adaptive wall filter
WO1994020866A1 (en) * 1993-03-01 1994-09-15 General Electric Company Wall filter using circular convolution for a color flow imaging system
WO2006096915A1 (en) * 2005-03-15 2006-09-21 Uscom Limited Automatic flow tracking system and method
EP2397867A1 (de) * 2010-06-17 2011-12-21 Samsung Medison Co., Ltd. Adaptive Clutterfiltrierung in einem Ultraschallsystem

Families Citing this family (23)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
JPH02289237A (ja) * 1989-01-17 1990-11-29 Fujitsu Ltd 超音波診断装置
JPH03188841A (ja) * 1989-09-20 1991-08-16 Toshiba Corp 超音波診断装置
US5197477A (en) * 1990-10-12 1993-03-30 Advanced Technology Laboratories, Inc. Ultrasonic doppler flow measurement system with tissue motion discrimination
US5419331A (en) * 1994-02-10 1995-05-30 The University Of Rochester System for estimating target velocity from pulse echoes in response to their correspondence with predetermined delay trajectories corresponding to different distinct velocities
US5429137A (en) * 1994-06-03 1995-07-04 Siemens Medical Systems, Inc. Acoustic scan conversion method and apparatus for velocity flow
US5515852A (en) * 1994-06-06 1996-05-14 Hewlett-Packard Company Method and apparatus for a detection strength spatial filter in an ultrasound imaging system
US5640960A (en) * 1995-04-18 1997-06-24 Imex Medical Systems, Inc. Hand-held, battery operated, doppler ultrasound medical diagnostic device with cordless probe
US5634465A (en) * 1995-06-09 1997-06-03 Advanced Technology Laboratories, Inc. Continuous display of cardiac blood flow information
US6001063A (en) * 1998-06-23 1999-12-14 Acuson Corporation Ultrasonic imaging method and apparatus for providing doppler energy correction
US20030078227A1 (en) * 1998-07-02 2003-04-24 Greenleaf James F. Site-directed transfection with ultrasound and cavitation nuclei
US6146331A (en) * 1998-09-30 2000-11-14 Siemens Medical Systems, Inc. Method for improved clutter suppression for ultrasonic color doppler imaging
US6370264B1 (en) 1999-04-07 2002-04-09 Steven C Leavitt Method and apparatus for ultrasonic color flow imaging
US7555333B2 (en) 2000-06-19 2009-06-30 University Of Washington Integrated optical scanning image acquisition and display
EP1691666B1 (de) 2003-12-12 2012-05-30 University of Washington Katheterskop-3d-führung und schnittstellensystem
US7530948B2 (en) 2005-02-28 2009-05-12 University Of Washington Tethered capsule endoscope for Barrett's Esophagus screening
EP1954193B1 (de) * 2005-11-23 2013-03-06 University of Washington Scanning-strahl mit variablem sequentiellem framing unter verwendung von unterbrochener scanning-resonanz
WO2007084915A2 (en) * 2006-01-17 2007-07-26 University Of Washington Scanning fiber-optic nonlinear optical imaging and spectroscopy endoscope
EP1991314A2 (de) 2006-03-03 2008-11-19 University of Washington Faseroptik-scanner mit multiumhüllung
WO2007109622A2 (en) * 2006-03-17 2007-09-27 University Of Washington Clutter rejection filters for optical doppler tomography
US8840566B2 (en) 2007-04-02 2014-09-23 University Of Washington Catheter with imaging capability acts as guidewire for cannula tools
JP4787358B2 (ja) * 2007-04-27 2011-10-05 株式会社日立メディコ 超音波診断装置
WO2008137710A1 (en) 2007-05-03 2008-11-13 University Of Washington High resolution optical coherence tomography based imaging for intraluminal and interstitial use implemented with a reduced form factor
WO2018178327A1 (en) * 2017-03-31 2018-10-04 Koninklijke Philips N.V. Intravascular flow and pressure measurements

Citations (9)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US3934577A (en) * 1972-12-08 1976-01-27 Hoffmann-La Roche Inc. Fetal heart rate monitoring apparatus
EP0081045A1 (de) * 1981-12-03 1983-06-15 Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba Ultraschall diagnoseanlage
EP0137317A2 (de) * 1983-09-08 1985-04-17 Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. Ultraschallgerät zur Blutströmungsmessung
EP0202920A2 (de) * 1985-05-20 1986-11-26 Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. Blutgeschwindigkeitsmesser nach dem Ultraschall-Doppler-Prinzip
US4651745A (en) * 1984-04-02 1987-03-24 Aloka Co., Ltd. Ultrasonic Doppler diagnostic device
US4660565A (en) * 1983-12-08 1987-04-28 Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba Ultrasonic imaging apparatus using pulsed Doppler signal
EP0266998A2 (de) * 1986-11-03 1988-05-11 Hewlett-Packard Company Gerät zum Sichtbarmachen von Strömung
EP0298569A1 (de) * 1987-07-09 1989-01-11 Laboratoires D'electronique Philips Gerät zum Ausschliessen von Festechos für Ultraschallechographie
EP0225667B1 (de) * 1985-12-03 1993-02-10 Laboratoires D'electronique Philips Gerät zur Ultraschallechographie der Bewegung von Körperorganen, insbesondere der Blutströmung oder des Herzens

Family Cites Families (2)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
JPS5920820A (ja) * 1982-07-28 1984-02-02 Aloka Co Ltd 超音波血流画像形成装置
US4612937A (en) * 1983-11-10 1986-09-23 Siemens Medical Laboratories, Inc. Ultrasound diagnostic apparatus

Patent Citations (9)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US3934577A (en) * 1972-12-08 1976-01-27 Hoffmann-La Roche Inc. Fetal heart rate monitoring apparatus
EP0081045A1 (de) * 1981-12-03 1983-06-15 Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba Ultraschall diagnoseanlage
EP0137317A2 (de) * 1983-09-08 1985-04-17 Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. Ultraschallgerät zur Blutströmungsmessung
US4660565A (en) * 1983-12-08 1987-04-28 Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba Ultrasonic imaging apparatus using pulsed Doppler signal
US4651745A (en) * 1984-04-02 1987-03-24 Aloka Co., Ltd. Ultrasonic Doppler diagnostic device
EP0202920A2 (de) * 1985-05-20 1986-11-26 Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. Blutgeschwindigkeitsmesser nach dem Ultraschall-Doppler-Prinzip
EP0225667B1 (de) * 1985-12-03 1993-02-10 Laboratoires D'electronique Philips Gerät zur Ultraschallechographie der Bewegung von Körperorganen, insbesondere der Blutströmung oder des Herzens
EP0266998A2 (de) * 1986-11-03 1988-05-11 Hewlett-Packard Company Gerät zum Sichtbarmachen von Strömung
EP0298569A1 (de) * 1987-07-09 1989-01-11 Laboratoires D'electronique Philips Gerät zum Ausschliessen von Festechos für Ultraschallechographie

Cited By (9)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
EP0492054A2 (de) * 1990-12-20 1992-07-01 Hewlett-Packard Company Adaptives Sperrfilter zur farblichen Darstellung von Strömungen in der Ultraschallbildtechnik
EP0492054A3 (en) * 1990-12-20 1993-02-24 Hewlett-Packard Company Adaptive rejection filter for colour flow ultrasound imaging
EP0524774A2 (de) * 1991-07-25 1993-01-27 Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. Bildgebener Ultraschall-Doppler-Apparat
EP0524774A3 (en) * 1991-07-25 1994-12-07 Matsushita Electric Ind Co Ltd Ultrasonic doppler imaging apparatus
WO1994016341A1 (en) * 1993-01-08 1994-07-21 General Electric Company Color flow imaging system utilizing a time domain adaptive wall filter
WO1994020866A1 (en) * 1993-03-01 1994-09-15 General Electric Company Wall filter using circular convolution for a color flow imaging system
WO2006096915A1 (en) * 2005-03-15 2006-09-21 Uscom Limited Automatic flow tracking system and method
EP2397867A1 (de) * 2010-06-17 2011-12-21 Samsung Medison Co., Ltd. Adaptive Clutterfiltrierung in einem Ultraschallsystem
US9107602B2 (en) 2010-06-17 2015-08-18 Samsung Medison Co., Ltd. Adaptive clutter filtering in an ultrasound system

Also Published As

Publication number Publication date
JP2738939B2 (ja) 1998-04-08
DE3883484T2 (de) 1994-03-24
JPH01164355A (ja) 1989-06-28
EP0316200B1 (de) 1993-08-25
US4850364A (en) 1989-07-25
EP0316200A3 (en) 1990-03-28
DE3883484D1 (de) 1993-09-30

Similar Documents

Publication Publication Date Title
EP0316200B1 (de) Medizinisches Ultraschallabbildungssystem
US5443071A (en) Quantitative color flow
CA1300733C (en) Apparatus for examining a moving object by means of ultrasound echography
EP1175613B1 (de) Messung vektorieller geschwindigkeit
EP1067400B1 (de) Verfahren und Anordnung zur Spektral- Doppler- Bilderzeugung mit adaptivem Zeitbereichwandfilter
US6277075B1 (en) Method and apparatus for visualization of motion in ultrasound flow imaging using continuous data acquisition
US6508767B2 (en) Ultrasonic harmonic image segmentation
US4182173A (en) Duplex ultrasonic imaging system with repetitive excitation of common transducer in doppler modality
US5190044A (en) Ultrasonic blood flow imaging apparatus
US5170792A (en) Adaptive tissue velocity compensation for ultrasonic Doppler imaging
EP0150997B1 (de) Einrichtung zum Messen und Darstellen eines Mediums mit Hilfe von Ultraschall
US5177691A (en) Measuring velocity of a target by Doppler shift, using improvements in calculating discrete Fourier transform
US20070043294A1 (en) Automatic detection method of spectral Doppler blood flow velocity
US5097836A (en) Untrasound diagnostic equipment for calculating and displaying integrated backscatter or scattering coefficients by using scattering power or scattering power spectrum of blood
KR100742467B1 (ko) 촬상 시스템, 촬상 방법 및 혈액 움직임 촬상 시스템
US5357965A (en) Method for controlling adaptive color flow processing using fuzzy logic
JP3397748B2 (ja) カラードップラー映像システムにおけるカラー映像表示方法及び装置
CN100531674C (zh) 超声波摄像装置
JP3029315B2 (ja) 超音波血流イメージング装置
US5226420A (en) Ultrasonic color flow imaging using autoregressive processing
US7803114B2 (en) Ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus and data processing method therefor
US4683893A (en) Amplitude conditional signal processing for ultrasound frequency estimation
US5800358A (en) Undersampled omnidirectional ultrasonic flow detector
US6135962A (en) Method and apparatus for adaptive filtering by counting acoustic sample zeroes in ultrasound imaging
JP2723458B2 (ja) 超音波ドプラ診断装置

Legal Events

Date Code Title Description
PUAI Public reference made under article 153(3) epc to a published international application that has entered the european phase

Free format text: ORIGINAL CODE: 0009012

AK Designated contracting states

Kind code of ref document: A2

Designated state(s): DE FR GB IT NL

PUAL Search report despatched

Free format text: ORIGINAL CODE: 0009013

AK Designated contracting states

Kind code of ref document: A3

Designated state(s): DE FR GB IT NL

17P Request for examination filed

Effective date: 19900717

17Q First examination report despatched

Effective date: 19920611

GRAA (expected) grant

Free format text: ORIGINAL CODE: 0009210

AK Designated contracting states

Kind code of ref document: B1

Designated state(s): DE FR GB IT NL

PG25 Lapsed in a contracting state [announced via postgrant information from national office to epo]

Ref country code: NL

Effective date: 19930825

Ref country code: FR

Effective date: 19930825

Ref country code: IT

Free format text: LAPSE BECAUSE OF FAILURE TO SUBMIT A TRANSLATION OF THE DESCRIPTION OR TO PAY THE FEE WITHIN THE PRE;WARNING: LAPSES OF ITALIAN PATENTS WITH EFFECTIVE DATE BEFORE 2007 MAY HAVE OCCURRED AT ANY TIME BEFORE 2007. THE CORRECT EFFECTIVE DATE MAY BE DIFFERENT FROM THE ONE RECORDED.SCRIBED TIME-LIMIT

Effective date: 19930825

REF Corresponds to:

Ref document number: 3883484

Country of ref document: DE

Date of ref document: 19930930

EN Fr: translation not filed
NLV1 Nl: lapsed or annulled due to failure to fulfill the requirements of art. 29p and 29m of the patents act
PLBE No opposition filed within time limit

Free format text: ORIGINAL CODE: 0009261

STAA Information on the status of an ep patent application or granted ep patent

Free format text: STATUS: NO OPPOSITION FILED WITHIN TIME LIMIT

26N No opposition filed
PGFP Annual fee paid to national office [announced via postgrant information from national office to epo]

Ref country code: GB

Payment date: 19961025

Year of fee payment: 9

PGFP Annual fee paid to national office [announced via postgrant information from national office to epo]

Ref country code: DE

Payment date: 19961028

Year of fee payment: 9

PG25 Lapsed in a contracting state [announced via postgrant information from national office to epo]

Ref country code: GB

Free format text: LAPSE BECAUSE OF NON-PAYMENT OF DUE FEES

Effective date: 19971111

GBPC Gb: european patent ceased through non-payment of renewal fee

Effective date: 19971111

PG25 Lapsed in a contracting state [announced via postgrant information from national office to epo]

Ref country code: DE

Free format text: LAPSE BECAUSE OF NON-PAYMENT OF DUE FEES

Effective date: 19980801

REG Reference to a national code

Ref country code: FR

Ref legal event code: CD

Ref country code: FR

Ref legal event code: CA